Why are you in my inbox?

Who are you? Wait -- now I remember you. Long ago, I was visiting some far away city, biding my time in some mall or airport or something, some place where the only option for wi-fi was via your company, so I paid you for a day's worth of Internet access or whatever. Now, two years later, you're sending me an email telling that you've updated your privacy policies and terms and conditions. And you say they're under some sort of legal obligation to send me this information. I can click on the unsubscribe link, you tell me, but you warn me that you'll continue to send me this kind of thing regardless of my stated preferences.

Sorry, what? Okay, that's your point of view. Let me give you my point of view.

I'm not a current customer. I don't have an ongoing relationship with you. Our transaction is long done. And I don't agree that this email was legally required. I'm not seeing how you have any legal mandate to send past customers new policy information that might impact future transactions. If it's necessary for a return customer to be appraised of a new policy before entering into a new transaction -- why not inform them at the point of sale, instead? During the signup or checkout process.

Instead, what you did was email a legal notice your entire database of email addresses, even subscribers who have previously unsubscribed. Like many, I feel that my inbox is my personal space. You get in only when invited, and no matter what you think, you're not allowed to force your way into it.

You may have an opinion about what you think you have to send, what you have a right to send, but I have a spam filter, and ISPs have engagement and reputation metrics.

If you fill inboxes with something of low value (a legal notice that few care about) and if you fill the inboxes of a bunch of people don't want it (who didn't opt-in to receive followup emails from you) and you've got a recipe for lower than average engagement and higher than average spam complaints. And on top of it, you insult me by implying that I am not allowed to make these emails stop.

It may not be a spam, just barely, but this kind of thing is exactly why some classes of "non-spam, completely legal" senders end up in the spam or bulk folder.

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